Shareholders backed the move to separate News Corp's television and entertainment assets from its troubled newspaper business yesterday - a move which analysts said would help to limit the potential fallout of the phone hacking scandal and "open the way" for Mr Murdoch's behemoth to make a fresh tilt at the satellite broadcaster.

"The split should isolate BSkyB from any potential risk attached to the result of the News of the World investigation - and may open the way to a new bid for BSkyB, in our view," analysts at Espirito Santo said in a note. They raised their target price to 990p a share, an offer which would value BSkyB at nearly £16bn.

The expected price tag marks a 26pc premium to BSkyBﾒs current market capitalisation, and is considerably higher than the offer News Corp tabled last time it attempted to buy the 61pc of bSkyB it does not already own.

News Corp offered 700p-a-share for BSkyB in 2010, but was forced to pull its bid in 2011 after the News of the World phone hacking scandal made it impossible to forge ahead with the plan.

Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, warned at the time that it could use its so-called "fit and proper test" to revoke BSkyBﾒs broadcasting licence, should its ownership structure fall short of certain standards at any time. It later gave BSkyB its backing as a "fit and proper" broadcaster, but used the report into its standards to savage Rupert Murdoch's son, James, who was chairman of both BSkyB and News International when the phone hacking scandal erupted.

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The scandal at the UK newspaper group has effectively acted as a road block to News Corp's ambitions to take over BSkyB ever since.

However, the company's ambitions to seize full control of the satellite broadcaster apparently remain undimmed. James Murdoch has referred to the failed bid as "unfinished business". Sources close to the company have suggested that the News Corp empire could make another tilt at BSkyB before the next general election.

If it does, the offer is expected to come from 21st Century Fox, which will house nearly all of News Corp's television and entertainment operations when the company splits at the end of this month.

The remainder of the business, which will preserve the News Corp name, will encompass all of the book publishing and newspaper assets, as well as its television operation in Australia.

The company told shareholders at a special general meeting in New York on Tuesday that the split would "unlock the true value" of its assets and pave the way for "intensely focused acquisitions".